Magnetic cards are used for cash cards, patient registration cards, membership cards, security cards and the like, and a long and narrow magnetic stripe embedded in a surface of a magnetic card has digital data such as a number for identifying a user, magnetically recorded therein. As a device for reading data recorded in such a magnetic card, there has been proposed a magnetic card reader configured to read data through manual operation of a magnetic card by the user.
The magnetic card reader has a card travel groove formed by erecting a pair of side walls parallel to each other on a card sliding base surface that guides a side of a magnetic card, and a magnetic head disposed in an opening formed in one of the side walls, for reading data recorded in the magnetic stripe of the magnetic card. The magnetic head is supported on the side wall such that a surface of the magnetic head for being brought into contact with the magnetic stripe protrudes into the card travel groove in a manner capable of moving in a direction of retraction from the card travel groove. With this arrangement, when the magnetic card is caused to travel from one end to the other end of the card travel groove, the magnetic card is brought into abutment with the magnetic head protruding in the card travel groove, and then travels while pushing away the magnetic head in the direction of retraction from the card travel groove. At this time, the magnetic head is brought into contact with the magnetic stripe to read the data in the magnetic stripe.
If the magnetic card is used in an electrostatically charged state, the magnetic card reader is caused to discharge the static electricity via the magnetic head which is in contact with the magnetic stripe. This sometimes causes a control circuit electrically connected to the magnetic head to erroneously operate, or causes a circuit element to be damaged. To prevent such a problem, there has been proposed a magnet card reader which has a static elimination mechanism disposed at a before-magnetic head travel portion, for eliminating the static electricity charged on the magnetic card before the magnetic card is brought into contact with the magnetic head (see e.g. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-207878).
The magnetic card reader described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-207878 is constructed such that a metallic shutter member is disposed at a slot-like insertion opening via which a magnetic card is inserted, for covering the whole insertion slot when the magnetic card is not inserted. When the magnetic card is inserted, the metallic shutter member is brought into contact with the whole lateral width of the magnetic card to thereby eliminate the charged static electricity.
Further, the magnetic head of the magnetic card reader is exposed in the card travel groove where the magnetic cared travels, and is brought into direct contact with the magnetic stripe of the magnetic card. Therefore, the magnetic head sometimes gets dust floating in the air depending on the installation environment. Further, while using the magnetic card, dirt attached to a surface of the magnetic card may transfer to the magnetic head. To prevent such a problem, it is necessary to perform maintenance such as regular cleaning of the magnetic head using a cleaning card. In view of this, there has been proposed a magnetic card reader that prevents the magnetic head from getting dirty by disposing a belt-like dust absorbing member for cleaning a magnetic card in a card travel groove, and bringing the cleaned magnetic card into contact with a magnetic head (see e.g. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 08-227576).
According to the magnetic card reader described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 08-227576, the belt-like dust absorbing member extending in a direction of the card travel groove is disposed at a portion of one of side walls of the card travel groove, at a location closer to a slit opening of the card travel groove than the magnetic head is. With this arrangement, when the magnetic card is inserted from the slit opening into the card travel groove in a direction perpendicular to a travel direction, the magnetic card moves to the card sliding base surface while being brought into contact with the dust absorbing member, and at this time, the magnetic stripe is cleaned when passing the dust absorbing member.
However, the magnetic card reader described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-207878 is configured to eliminate static electricity using the metallic shutter member provided for preventing dust from entering inside, so that the magnetic card reader of this type is not applicable to that of a type in which the magnetic card is caused to travel along the card travel groove because there is not enough space available therefor. Further, the magnetic card reader described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 08-227576 is of a type in which the magnetic card is inserted into the card travel groove from the slit opening in the direction perpendicular to the travel direction, so that there is a problem that the magnetic card reader of this type is not applicable for that of a type in which a magnetic card is inserted in the travel direction, because the magnetic stripe is not brought into contact with the dust absorbing member.